Android Tablet GIS Solution Transforms Well Inspection for Bucks County Health Department

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1 Android Tablet GIS Solution Transforms Well Inspection for Bucks County Health Department A Case Study Problem Statement The Bureau of Environmental Health (BEH) within the Bucks County Health Department is responsible for enforcing all regulations related to the construction and maintenance of well sites within the County of Bucks, Pennsylvania. The enforcement of these regulations is performed by specially trained employees who inspect the work of licensed contractors to insure regulatory compliance and issue permits upon satisfactory construction. Contractors submit paper-based well permit applications. Once a permit application is received, the inspectors conduct field visits to inspect the well site prior to, during, and after well construction to ensure regulatory compliance. The paper permit application is maintained on file at the County. Prior to the implementation of the Android tablet solution, BEH well inspectors entered well inspection data into an on-line commercial web service but there were several limitations with this approach. First, because the on-line service was not designed to store well inspection data, the data were entered into free form memo fields which meant inspection data could not be indexed or searched as in traditional database management systems. Secondly, the on-line service did not offer a mapping component to view the key environment and cultural layers such as soil permeability, slope, hydrography, and property boundaries relative to the well location. This required inspectors to manually compile well map coordinates onto mylar soil and slope maps in order to review key environmental factors relative to the well site. The Health Department envisioned a map-centric, tablet-deployed, field inspection solution that would eliminate manual compilation of map coordinates for proposed well sites, thereby improving efficiency of the permit review process and accuracy of well coordinates. While at the well site, inspectors could review crucial environmental and cultural map layers using the tablet s interactive map window to increase the efficiency of the site inspection. Finally, there was an opportunity to improve data quality by capturing the tablet s GPS coordinate while the inspector was standing at the well site, and by using data entry selection lists to minimize key entry of data combined with automated data validation routines. The Solution The Health Department wanted to use lightweight, non-ruggedized Android tablets that bundle cellular broadband and GPS receivers and built-in cameras as the preferred platform for several reasons. First, there was a greater variety of manufactures and models available that offered lighter weight and less expensive options compared to Windows tablets. Secondly, ruggedized tablets were not considered an option because, the Health Department reasoned, the replacement cost for non-ruggedized tablets that are lost, stolen, or broken is significantly cheaper than for ruggedized tablets. Thirdly, the Department had recently purchased another software package that required the Android Tablet GIS Solution Transforms Well Inspection for Bucks County Page 1

2 Android operating system. Finally, the opportunity to integrate the tablet s peripheral devices into a native Android mapping solution would enable inspectors to navigate to the inspection site and capture accurate latitude/longitude coordinates of the proposed well site using the built in GPS, use the 3G/4G network to connect to the office in order edit well permit and inspection data on-line, and attach photographs of the well site using the built-in camera. The native Android tablet GIS application was designed and developed by geographit of Lancaster, Pennsylvania using the ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Android 2.0. It connects to and consumes ArcGIS Server 10.1 published services hosted by the Bucks County Enterprise GIS via either 3G/4G cellular broadband or Wi-Fi hotspots. The application is designed to work both on-line and off-line since there are areas in Bucks County with weak cellular broadband signal coverage. When on-line, the application submits edits directly to a published ArcGIS Server feature service, so edited well data are immediately visible to anyone viewing well data whether in the field or back in the office. When cellular broadband signal is weak or unavailable, edits are cached locally until the network connection is restored at which time edits are submitted to the published ArcGIS Server feature service and deleted from the local cache. This off-line caching ensures that field edits are never lost due to inadequate network availability. In order to support continued operation when off-line, two ArcGIS map tile packages are periodically updated on a file server and transferred onto the Android tablet s SD card when the tablet is connected at the Health Department office: one tile package contains fused base map layers and the other contains recent digital ortho-photography. Supporting Office Processes: Several processes are performed at the Health Department office to support the Android tablet well inspection solution: 1. Bucks County Enterprise GIS periodically updates/rebuilds the fused base map tile packages and transfers them onto the Android tablets to ensure that the latest base maps are available when inspectors need to work off-line. 2. To maximize data entry efficiency, permit application information is entered using a web application prior to field inspection. This enables inspectors to verify/modify the well data while at the well site rather than performing extensive data entry using the tablet s touchscreen keyboard. Inspectors have the ability to add new wells in the field, but they are only required Android Tablet GIS Solution Transforms Well Inspection for Bucks County Page 2

3 to enter a minimum number of well attributes using the tablet s touchscreen keyboard with the balance of well attributes added back at the office. Android Tablet Field Inspection Capabilities: Well inspectors use the Android tablet to perform a variety of functions in the field related to well inspection: 1. Pan, zoom, and toggle map layer visibility in order to display municipal and property boundaries, building footprints, soils, road centerlines, well locations, and digital orthophotographs. 2. Identify nearby map features within a radial search distance of where the inspector clicks on the map by displaying feature attributes as map tips. The system administrator can configure the map layers that can be identified, the map tips that will be returned, and the radial search distance (in feet). 3. Measure linear distance in feet and area in feet 2 by drawing a line or polygon in the map display. 4. Measure linear distance in feet by tracking the tablet GPS location as the inspector traverses a multi-point line at the well site. 5. Find a location by entering a latitude/longitude coordinate or a street address. 6. Display the current GPS location in the map as a green icon when the GPS receiver is receiving new coordinates. Display the last known GPS location as a red icon when the GPS receiver is not receiving new coordinates. 7. Auto-track the GPS location by panning the map window to keep the GPS icon in the center of the map display. If GPS signal is lost while auto-track is enabled, the auto-tracking feature is automatically disabled. 8. View and edit well permit and inspection data. The user can select a well using the Identify tool or Search tool to find a well by its serial number. Once selected, the well permit and inspection data can be viewed and edited. The system administrator can configure the set of well attributes that can be viewed and edited. 9. Create a new well by using the GPS coordinate location or by tapping at a location in the interactive map to indicate the well s location. A data entry form is displayed to support entry of required data. 10. Take photographs using the tablet s built-in camera and store the photographs as well attachments. Each photograph is stored with its geographic coordinate and date/time the photograph was taken. Android Tablet GIS Solution Transforms Well Inspection for Bucks County Page 3

4 The Technology The Health Department selected the 3G/4G compatible Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet as the platform. The tablet s base configuration and physical characteristics as shipped from the factory include: Android 4.1 Jellybean Operating System 5 MP camera with flash 720P high definition video camcorder Bluetooth 4.0 Wi-Fi a/b/g/n Weight 1.3 pounds 16 GB internal memory 1.4 GHz Exynos quad core processor with 2 GB RAM 64 GB Secure Digital (SD) cards for data storage 10.1 WXGA display (1280 x 800 pixels) Touch screen with S Pen Virtual QWERTY keyboard 16 hour battery use time Innovation and Originally Factors 1. The variety of Android device manufactures and models combined with the high cost of ruggedized tablets led to the selection of a non-ruggedized non-windows mobile platform to support field operations primarily because significant cost savings and secondarily because of the smaller and lighter weight form factor available with Android tablets. Until recently, this type of field solution would have required Windows tablets or Windows Mobile hand held devices as there were few alternatives available for mobile platforms. 2. At this time of this project, Esri had not implemented out-of-the-box off-line editing capability with ArcGIS for Server 10.1 and the ArcGIS Runtime SDK for Android 2.0. So, it was necessary to develop a client service running on the tablet to monitor the feature service connection, and automatically switch to off-line mode whenever the connection is lost. It was also necessary to implement a local edit cache on the tablets using SQLite to store off-line edits until feature service connection is reestablished, and then submit all cached edits to the feature service and flush the cache once successful transmission is verified. Similarly, the commercial technology foundation did not support off-line capture and storage of photographs as feature attachments, so whenever the tablet is in off-line mode, new photographs are cached locally and transmitted to the well feature service when connection is reestablished. 3. Implementing the off-line edit functionality allows inspectors to access well locations throughout the county even when cellular broadband signal is inadequate to support on-line editing. The custom local caching service developed by geographit ensures edits and Android Tablet GIS Solution Transforms Well Inspection for Bucks County Page 4

5 photographs are never lost when the solution switches to off-line mode. As soon as the on-line service connection is reestablished, the local cache is cleared, thereby enabling extended field operation. 4. On-line editing while in the field enables immediate enterprise access to the latest data, resulting in more timely data delivery compared to the traditional back office approach of synchronizing data after the mobile device returns to the office. 5. The well permit application was implemented on Android tablets, but can also be used on Android smart phones without modification as it automatically adjusts to the screen size of the device. For example, the permit application works just as well on a Galaxy S3 smart phone as on the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet for which it was designed. Future Value to the Geospatial Profession and the Public 1. The rapid proliferation of Android tablets and smartphones challenges the paradigm that custom GIS solutions must run on Windows platforms. According to an article by John Koetsier (VentureBeat, January 28, 2013), Android captured 68% of the global smartphone market share in 2012 followed by Apple ios with 19%. This solution demonstrates both the feasibility and justification for deploying custom mobile GIS solutions for local government on non-windows and non-ruggedized platforms. Furthermore, Android s dominate market share of smartphones, combined with the ability to develop GIS applications for Android platforms, offers geospatial firms the opportunity to develop highly focused single purpose GIS application designed for a mass market and to distribute them to the general public through Google Play. 2. Local governments are becoming increasingly aware of the potential to achieve an ROI by deploying mobile GIS solutions to support field operations. Successful outcomes that demonstrate an ROI such as the Bucks County Health Department s well inspection solution encourage the local government adoption of similar mobile GIS solutions at a time when local governments are seeking ways to reduce costs and increase revenues. This provides new market opportunities for geospatial firms that develop custom solutions. Android Tablet GIS Solution Transforms Well Inspection for Bucks County Page 5